Yemen, 1999

I am

pleased to convey to you, Sir, the assurances of my

greatest esteem on your election as President of the

General Assembly at this session. On behalf of the

Government of the Republic of Yemen, I congratulate

you on your assumption of this high office. We are

certain that under your distinguished and capable

21

leadership the work of the General Assembly will be

crowned with success.

The democratic process in our world today is

undergoing real expansion and is receiving the attention of

all nations, whatever their creeds, races or regimes. It is

further consolidated by being increasingly linked to human

rights, in particular the rights to sustainable development,

global knowledge, equality, justice, peace and stability.

The Republic of Yemen has linked itself in complete

unity to the democratic process and has made it a

continuous process towards comprehensive development.

Both State and society are tirelessly struggling to make

democracy in our country a firm and established system,

evolving daily in order to ultimately form an integral

system for the conduct of political, social and economic

life.

On 23 September 1999, the Republic of Yemen, for

the first time in its history, held free and direct elections for

the presidency of the Republic, reflecting the credibility of

the country’s political regime and its constitutional

commitments requiring the holding of direct elections for

the presidency for five-year terms. This is proof that

democracy in Yemen has become established as a firmly

rooted principle and a unique and unrestricted option for

achieving a peaceful change of government respect for

human rights, and for enhancing people’s role and

participation in sustainable development and cultural

progress.

Democracy in Yemen appeared in its highest form in

the direct presidential elections, which reflected the free

will of the people and the need for development and

stability. The results of the direct secret ballot showed

participation in all parts of the country by 66 per cent of all

registered voters. The President-elect of the Republic of

Yemen for the forthcoming term, Ali Abdullah Saleh,

obtained 96 per cent of the votes. A new term and a new

era will begin on 3 October this year, when the directly

elected President will take the constitutional oath before the

Yemeni Chamber of Deputies.

The wish of the people to achieve democratic progress

reflects their need for stability and for an end to states of

emergency in their lives. This goes hand in hand with their

desire for a future that embodies radical change in the

economic, social and cultural fields. It also requires serious

practical action on the part of Governments and

international and regional organizations to support

development in emerging democracies, and to supply

them with means of growth and the transfer of

know-how. Sustainable development would then

accompany and safeguard democracy, and the linkage

between development and democracy would be a

condition for progress and a motivating force for

cooperation and human integration among all nations of

the world.

Sixteen States convened the Forum on Emerging

Democracies in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, and issued

an important instrument called the Sana’a Declaration,

with a view to intensifying the concepts, framework and

applications of the democratic process in real life, and to

achieving broad popular participation and the affirmation

of human rights in those countries.

I wish to reaffirm here the announcement of

President Ali Abdullah Saleh that the Republic of Yemen

would like to host the International Conference of New or

Restored Democracies to be held in Asia in 2003.

Our world today is witnessing profound changes that

essentially represent the remnants of the cold war and that

are, at the same time, new harbingers of hope that

forthcoming changes will be in the interest of peace,

economic progress and development, and that the people,

political leaders and intellectuals have absorbed the

lessons to be derived from ideological and racial conflicts,

power politics and their tragic clashes. The only way to

prepare the way for peace and stability is through the

language of dialogue, the rule of law, stable relationships

and the absence of fear, doubt and uncertainty. Dialogue

will for ever remain the only way to extinguish fires,

spread the spirit of tolerance and coexistence and promote

the values of cooperation, solidarity and integration

among all active forces and actors in the cause of peace.

The position of the Republic of Yemen regarding

world events consists of our commitment to the principles

of peaceful coexistence, non-interference in the internal

affairs of other States, non-use or threat of force in the

settlement of disputes and peaceful negotiations and

dialogue in the settlement of all issues, including border

issues between States on a no-fault basis.

As a member of the international family and an

active participant in regional organizations, Yemen

unequivocally affirms its sincere desire to contribute to

the maintenance of security and stability in the Arabian

22

Peninsula, the Gulf, the Red Sea, the Horn of Africa and

the Indian Ocean. The Republic of Yemen calls upon all

States and peoples to continue their sincere and diligent

efforts to achieve tangible progress in the ongoing dialogue

between all parties concerned in these regions. The desired

goal is to arrive at mutual understanding, balanced

relationships and firm bases for the achievement of

coexistence and harmony among States and peoples, the

consolidation of peace and the securing of the necessary

conditions for development and cooperation.

The Republic of Yemen demonstrated in practice the

credibility of its positions of principle, its respect for

international law, its wholehearted desire for stability and

peace in the region and its awareness of the importance of

such peace for international economic, commercial and

maritime relations. Yemen proved that when it accepted

unconditionally the decision of the arbitration tribunal

regarding the sovereignty dispute over the Yemeni island of

Greater Hanish, which lies in the Red Sea between Yemen

and the neighbouring State of Eritrea, thereby furnishing a

prime example of how peaceful solutions to differences and

disputes between States can be achieved by international

arbitration.

We hope that the island-related dispute between the

United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran will

be settled peacefully in accordance with internationally

recognized principles and rules relating to the settlement of

such disputes, and in keeping with the desire to achieve

peace, stability, development and cooperation in our region.

In accordance with these firm premises and guidelines,

the Republic of Yemen will remain faithful to the principle

of the rejection of violence and the combating of terrorism

in all its forms, whatever its motives and sources, and

regardless of whether it involves individuals, groups or

States. Our country is combating this phenomenon with all

its might. It believes that terrorism has become a worldwide

phenomenon meriting investigation at the international level

and the creation of integrated mechanisms and rules to

contain it and to counter its effects, with a view to

ultimately eliminating it.

The Assembly might agree with me that there is now

an urgent need to review the policy of imposing

international embargoes and sanctions. Experience has

demonstrated their ineffectiveness in achieving the goals

and purposes for which they were adopted and the

tremendous harm they have visited upon people, not

political regimes, especially the middle and lower strata of

the population and vulnerable social sectors such as

children, women and the elderly.

The situation in Iraq attests to this. The need for a

total and final lifting of the sanctions imposed on the

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya has also become self-evident,

after recent developments and the Libyan leadership’s

compliance with the Security Council resolutions

concerning the Lockerbie affair. We also call for the

lifting of the sanctions imposed on the Sudan, which is

currently holding an internal democratic dialogue for the

achievement of unity and national concord.

Wars and clashes result only in human tragedies, in

the form of displacement, imprisonment, forcible

detention and flight from war zones in search of refuge

and safe havens. In this context, my country emphasizes

the need to deal in a humane and civilized manner with

the question of prisoners, the missing and those who are

forced into hiding as a result of wars, conflicts and

clashes of all kinds.

In this regard, we have great hope that the issue of

Kuwaiti and other prisoners will meet with a humane and

objective solution that will help to create an atmosphere

conducive to reconciliation and to the achievement of

harmony, peace and stability in the region.

It is known that societies that host refugees fleeing

from areas of war and oppression bear heavy burdens and

sustain tragic consequences, and that their peoples face

serious environmental and health hazards. Those societies

also face considerable economic and financial hardships

as a result of hosting refugees. It is indeed regrettable that

the humanitarian work done for refugees by certain

countries should have disastrous, tragic results for those

countries. This is what is happening today in the Republic

of Yemen as a result of the steadily increasing daily

influx of refugees from the Horn of Africa, which is

ablaze with regional and civil wars and local dissension.

The Republic of Yemen calls upon the international

community to assume its responsibility with regard to this

humanitarian issue, which weighs heavily on the Yemeni

State and society, by increased efforts on the part of the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees and a more concerted international alliance

among all donor countries able to provide emergency and

long-term assistance. Allowing the persistence of such

inhumane phenomena and conditions reflects a tragic

deterioration in human rights and an alarming regression

in the values of civilized nations. We undoubtedly need

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to develop mechanisms and devise the necessary means for

coping with such situations. This is the very essence and

substance of the work of the United Nations.

At the same time, we wish to emphasize that the time

has come for renewed solidarity and efforts on the part of

the United Nations, the international community and all

parties concerned with a view to finding practical solutions

to the situation in Somalia that will help restore the unity

and territorial integrity of Somalia and bring security and

stability to the region.

The peoples of the world seek a peace that is based on

justice, equality, respect for human rights and the absence

of tyranny, abuse and double standards. Accordingly, the

Republic of Yemen, which has supported and given its

blessing to the efforts towards a peaceful settlement in the

Middle East, believes that a comprehensive, just and lasting

peace must be based on the restoration of all legitimate

rights to the Palestinian people, first and foremost of which

is its right to establish its independent State on its national

soil, with Jerusalem as its capital, and likewise the

restoration of Israeli-occupied territories to the Syrian and

the Lebanese peoples.

At a time when we are positively and with renewed

optimism discussing the peace process in the region, Israel

must realize that a just, comprehensive and lasting peace

is a genuine goal for the people of the area. Furthermore,

it is a regional, international humanitarian goal that will

help open a new page in the life and relations between

peoples and help end the tragedies of the past. It will

hopefully assist in overcoming all rancour and grudges and

in providing opportunities for tolerance between creeds,

cultures and races. All this would constitute a genuine

starting point for stability, trust and mutual understanding

among the States and peoples of the region.

As we approach the end of the second millennium, we

are confronted with a reality exemplified in the increased

speed and movement of political, economic and social

variables, whose ramifications and relationship with other

contrasting factors are becoming increasingly more

complex, in terms of time and space.

We are all therefore called upon to cooperate and to

respond responsibly for the creation of a healthy climate for

the building of a new world order based on justice, freedom

of choice, tolerance and genuine partnership in all

governmental and non-governmental activities at the

regional and international levels. The ultimate goal is to

permanently ensure a balance of interests and a sense of

involvement in all that is humane and noble and, in

concrete terms, in a productive and useful life for all

mankind.

Since one of our primary goals is the reform of the

United Nations and, in particular, the Security Council

and the international institutions, we are giving this goal

our full attention and support. At the same time, we

commend the Secretary-General for the initiatives and

measures he has taken towards the goal of reforming the

United Nations, its mechanisms and its methods of work,

which would broaden democratic practices and achieve

transparency of work and effectiveness of participation.

In this context, we reaffirm our welcome and

support for the Open-ended Working Group established

for this purpose. We call for the continuation and early

completion of its work, taking into full account the

importance of a full understanding of the essential

variables in international relations in recent years.

I reiterate my esteem for the President of the

Assembly, and I thank all those participating in the

current session. May peace and God’s mercy and blessing

be upon you.